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Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories

by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Illustrator), Jay Rubin (Translator), Haruki Murakami (Introduction)

4.07 · rating details · 1,004 ratings · 93 reviews

This collection features a brilliant new translation of the Japanese master's stories, from the source for the movie Rashomon to his later, more autobiographical writings.

Paperback, 268 pages

Published October 31st 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1952)

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Feb 08, 2010

Kimley rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, japanese-lit

Obviously the difficulty of rating collections of stories is the fact that they don't necessarily all rate equally. About a third of these stories are easily knock-out 5-star fantastic. The other two-thirds I'd rate mostly 4 stars with a few 3 stars. All worth reading and in general I think this is probably a good intro to Akutagawa's work in that it contains a nice cross-section of his work from the earliest historical stories to his later primarily autobiographical stories.

I perso...moreObviously the difficulty of rating collections of stories is the fact that they don't necessarily all rate equally. About a third of these stories are easily knock-out 5-star fantastic. The other two-thirds I'd rate mostly 4 stars with a few 3 stars. All worth reading and in general I think this is probably a good intro to Akutagawa's work in that it contains a nice cross-section of his work from the earliest historical stories to his later primarily autobiographical stories.

I personally preferred the earlier stories which ranged from tales of Samurai warriors and Shoguns and stories of religious persecution when Christianity was making inroads in Japan to satyrical stories about unfortunates with big noses.* While the settings are completely foreign to me, the characters are people I know all too well. My favorite story being "Hell Screen" in which an egotistical painter is commissioned to paint a screen depicting the horrors of hell. In order to sketch the scenes, he puts his assistants through a myriad of tortures and all I'll add in an effort to not give too much away is that karma is a bitch! These early stories have an almost Victorian gothic creepiness to them but it's a bit more subtle and far more insidious in that it seems infinitely more real. And Akutagawa has a nice dollop of humor running throughout these early stories as well.

The later autobiographical stories in which he writes of his mother who went mad, of his infidelities and his fear of going mad himself and his increasing depression that led to his eventual suicide are painful to read in how human and easy to relate to they are. But having read Dazai's similarly themed autobiographical stories not too long ago, Akutagawa didn't have quite the gut punch that Dazai had for me. Akutagawa's story "The Spinning Gears" was the best of the autobiographical bunch for me. Throughout, he continues to have visions of gears that nearly block out his vision. Those of us who have the luxury to think about life beyond just worrying about food and shelter can probably all relate to this nightmare of the cogs of life just taking over. The horror element of his earlier stories definitely comes into play here.

There's a slightly strange intro to this collection by Haruki Murakami which is far more critical of Akutagawa's work than I might have expected though it did seem like a relatively fair critique. I'm glad I read it after reading the stories though.

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*When I studied Chinese, my teachers were all native Chinese, mostly on exchange and when we learned the word for "nose" we also learned that Americans are frequently called "big nose" so I had a good chuckle seeing that the Japanese are equally amused by big noses.(less)

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Jul 31, 2010

Joselito rated it

· review of another edition

When I read my first Murakami, a compilation of short stories called "After the Quake," I was amazed by his refreshing originality. Some of his stories, indeed, had the effect of an earthquake to me. There were jolting, sudden and unexpected turns. In one, a man and a woman, after a brief introduction, make love. Then, out of nowhere, the man felt a sudden impulse to kill her. In another story, the characters were on a beach. Tears suddenly flow down from the eyes of one character, the...moreWhen I read my first Murakami, a compilation of short stories called "After the Quake," I was amazed by his refreshing originality. Some of his stories, indeed, had the effect of an earthquake to me. There were jolting, sudden and unexpected turns. In one, a man and a woman, after a brief introduction, make love. Then, out of nowhere, the man felt a sudden impulse to kill her. In another story, the characters were on a beach. Tears suddenly flow down from the eyes of one character, then they talk of killing themselves. Developments like these come without warning as they were not even hinted in the previous narration.

Now, it can be told. This style of storytelling is not at all original. Murakami, I think, copied it from this great Japanese writer who killed himself in 1927 at the age of 35--Ryunosuke Akutagawa (in the list of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die he's under letter "R"--a mistake, because his surname is Akutagawa, not Ryunosuke). By his own confession, Murakami has been reading Akutagawa since he was a teenager.

I bet that if one includes Rashomon in that compilation "After the Quake" an uninitiated reader will not find any difference between it and the rest of the stories there except that the latter have modern settings while "Rashomon" is set in 12th century Japan.

"Rashomon" ("Mon" being the Japanese for gate) was an outer castle gate, specifically the great southern main entrance to Kyoto during the Heian Period. It had massive pillars, towering archways and several chambers. The whole city of Kyoto, at the time of the story, was under civil unrest. People were hungry, even the Rashomon itself had become dilapidated for lack of proper maintenance. In the upper chamber thereof was dumped the city's dead, the victims of the prevailing hunger and violence.

In the lower chamber sits a servant who had just lost his job. He is said to be waiting for the rain to stop but he knows that even if the rain stops he really has nowhere to go and nothing to do. He had come to the dreadful conclusion that he would either die of starvation or survive by being a thief.

The mood is somber, the descriptive prose is elegant, fluid and spontaneous. Just like Murakami (in his short stories). Then the servant sees something...Thereafter comes one event after another which felt like Murakami's earthquakes, with a similar ending that leaves unanswered questions.

In the Introduction to the life and works of Akutagawa a Japanese literary critic, in 1917, described him (Akutagawa) as "a writer who can't write without props." I was amused by this because elsewhere in goodreads before, discussing Kafka on the Shore with a Murakami fanatic K.D., I wrote that Murakami had used a lot of juvenile, ineffective props here (like talking cats, mother and son fucking, eels falling down from the sky, etc.) which were not even original as you can see parallels from Greek mythology and even in works of Lewis Carroll.

The Introduction also declared:

"Sheer technique...though skillfully applied, does not necessarily translate into original literature. A fictional world that was not truly (the author's) own and that used borrowed containers would eventually reach and impasse and come to stand in his way like a high wall. Further pursuit of fictional method could only yield technical polish. And not surprisingly, the novelty would wear thin and readers would tire of seeing the same devices."

Wow, I myself could have said this after reading Kafka on the Shore! Now, guess who wrote this introduction? Close your eyes and bang your head on the wall--Haruki Murakami himself.

LOL!(less)

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Oct 23, 2010

Parrish Lantern added it

Rashomon & 17 other stories

Ryunosuke Akutugawa is generally regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story" of which he wrote approximately a hundred, before taking his own life at the age of 35, he also has Japan's most famous Literary prize named after him (Akutagawa Prize) . Born in Tokyo in 1892 & raised by a family steeped in traditional Japanese culture, by a young age had mastered English...more

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Jun 17, 2008

Yulia rated it

Recommended to Yulia by: Bibliomantic

Shelves: short-stories, by-and-of-japan

Hmm, these stories are so unlike what I'm used to expecting shorts to be like. They're like folklore or legends. It's quite impressive to think a once-living man could have created such timeless stories. Don't such narratives take centuries to shape, passed from one generation to the next by old women making yarn or silk thread?

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I'm not sure whether to be amused or annoyed that Murakami gives Akutagawa such grud...more

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Jan 07, 2012

Hilson rated it

One of my favorite collection of short stories from any country. I credit this with opening my eyes to Japanese literature and further inspiring a look intot he country as a whole. The stories could be broken into two groups - the historical and the autobiographical. They are both interesting in their own regards, but I think that one intrigued by the 'romantic' Japan of geishas and samurai would be well-served to take a look at the first half of the book which handle the subject matter in direc...moreOne of my favorite collection of short stories from any country. I credit this with opening my eyes to Japanese literature and further inspiring a look intot he country as a whole. The stories could be broken into two groups - the historical and the autobiographical. They are both interesting in their own regards, but I think that one intrigued by the 'romantic' Japan of geishas and samurai would be well-served to take a look at the first half of the book which handle the subject matter in direct and very un-romantic fashion. Perhaps you may come away with a different perspective of the era. I am thinking specifically of 'Rashomon' (that, while different in terms of story than Kurosawa's movie version - that comes mainly from 'In A Bamboo Grove' - shares much of the distrust in not only humanity but one's self), 'The Story of a Head that Fell Off' (some of Akutagawa's most beautiful writing, though I feel the last section could have been compounded) and 'Loyalty'.

Be sure to appreciate stories like 'The Nose' and 'Dragon: An old Potter's Tale' (my personal favorite) as they are somewhat light-hearted in comparison and do a good job of breaking up the somber rhythm of the collection's first half.

The second set of stories 'Death Register', 'The Life of a Stupid Man', 'Spinning Gears' (a haunting read, especially considering that Akutugawa took his life shortly after finishing it) are of a very different tone and subject matter. I think that much of the trepidation and horror in humanity that was displayed in his earlier works is taken to a more severe level in these stories as the characters displaying these notions are not ficticious, but Akutagawa himself. These stories are displays of a popular mode of storytelling at the time called Shishosetsu (or the I-Novel wherein the author was the protagonist of the story (even if they gave the character a different name) and often reflected events and concerns that actually occurred in the authors life. Perhaps Dazai Osamu's 'No Longer Human' is the most famous example of this mode, though I think you could say that it has been utilized by author's constantly and outside of Japan (Charles Bukowski's Henry Chinaski comes to mind). As I said, these stories are not uplifting, but they very much show the sort of person Akutagawa was, especially later on in his career, a successful author who struggled to find redeeming qualities not only in himself, but he world in which he wrote. These stories are invaluable for anyone interested in Akutagawa's personal life.

A side note, Jay Rubin (of Murakami Haruki fame) has done a fantastic job with this collection. One of the best jobs of translation and editing I have ever seen in a collection of stories, his translation notes and introduction are extremely prompt, precise and invaluable to any reader (even those as brash as myself who presume to know a good deal about Japan). Many of the stories take place during periods in Japan's history that can be confusing not only to the foreigner, but the layman Japanese reader as well. Akutagawa is a notoriously difficult read in Japanese, he uses kanji and names that are antiquated and hard to read, his style and tone often reflects that of the period (perhaps 300 years ago), even though he was writing in the early 20th century and Rubin takes great measures to make sure that the reader does not get lost in many of the subtleties of the stories. While I give this book 5 stars on the merit of Akutagawa's stories, I wish I could give it an additional 6th star to credit Rubin's fantastic job as editor and translator.

A fantastic book and a great introduction to the world of Japanese literature, I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the craft of the short story or Japanese culture as a whole.(less)

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Sep 20, 2011

Sam Quixote rated it

"Rashomon" tells the story of a "lowly servant" sheltering from the rain on the steps of a rashomon (outer castle gate). He has recently been laid off and sits pondering his future. He hears a sound and ventures inside the rashomon to see what it was. Inside are heaps of dead bodies from the recent plague and a strange old woman wandering about, going through the corpses' clothes. The servant attacks the old woman, strips her of her clothing, throws her onto the heap, and run...more"Rashomon" tells the story of a "lowly servant" sheltering from the rain on the steps of a rashomon (outer castle gate). He has recently been laid off and sits pondering his future. He hears a sound and ventures inside the rashomon to see what it was. Inside are heaps of dead bodies from the recent plague and a strange old woman wandering about, going through the corpses' clothes. The servant attacks the old woman, strips her of her clothing, throws her onto the heap, and runs off.

"In a Bamboo Grove" features a married couple and a robber. The story is told from the perspective of all witnesses and it emerges that the husband was murdered but who did it and why is the mystery.

These are the two most famous Akutagawa stories and are an excellent start to the collection. However, afterwards they become quite mediocre and even a bit tedious. The forced gothic of "Hell Screen" plods along until a near hysterical ending that undermines the seriousness of the story, that of obssession and the artistic mind. "The Nose" is a very odd story about a priest with a very big nose, has it shortened, and it grows back again. It's one of those "be grateful for what you have, accept who you are" type tales and not nearly as brilliant as Gogol's "The Nose" (Gogol being one of Akutagawa's influences and, frankly, a better short story writer).

As the title suggests there are 18 stories here but those are the only ones I can remember. The last couple in the section called "Akutagawa's Own Story" are interesting, with "Life of a Stupid Man" playing with form and presenting an interesting take on autobiography through small snippets of a life glimpsed in passing. "Spinning Gears" is the final story he wrote before his suicide (pills) and is about the slowly disintegrating mind of Akutagawa. The desperation and mounting paranoia give the reader an insight into Akutagawa's fragile and fractured mindset. The strange imagery is also fascinating. The spinning gears he sees around his eyes confuse and scare him while at every turn he sees signs of death - a decaying animal corpse, dying people in hospitals, and above all his morbid fear of going insane like his mother.

I won't say I didn't enjoy the book as there were some stories here that were excellent, and whether it's Jay Rubin's translation or not, the writing was always of a high standard. And students of literature will find reading "Rashomon" and "In a Bamboo Grove" very rewarding as will film students who are interested in the work of Kurasawa who based his film "Rashomon" on those stories. But compared to other short story writers and other Japanese writers, Akutagawa isn't nearly on their level. (less)

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Jun 02, 2010

Bear rated it

Recommends it for: everyone

Awesome read. It's like Grimm's Fairy Tales as told by Mr. Miyagi. Well, not really... but you know what I mean. It's dark stuff and as the book progresses, the stories get more and more autobiographical until you are fully enlightened of the mental anguish and insanity that caused Akutagawa to kill himself in his thirties. Most stories are a quick read and all of them are interesting and poignant. I imagine this is an excellent first step into Japanese literature for a Westerner as Akutagawa's ...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Andrew added it

Shelves: japanese-fiction, prewar-japanese-fiction

The story Rashomon itself is beautifully simple, as is the follow-up story, which was the basis for the much better-known (in the West, at least) film. The collection started strong.

Akutagawa lost me with his deeply involved historical tales. Not only did I feel one needed a more thorough knowledge of the culture and history to get them, it's just naturally hard for me to connect to stories that are set in a realm of existence not only so different from me, but embedded within and de...more

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May 20, 2010

Sam Kabo Ashwell rated it

Very dark; madness, the unforgiving brutality of various periods of Japanese history, inconstancy to oneself, despair and self-loathing and alienation. A basic attraction to Christianity, twinned with distrust and distaste. The sympathy between tormented modernism and the floating world. As with Akutagawa's mentor Soseki Natsume, there's a strong interest in both Western culture and the superficiality of Japanese reaction to it, but it's a much less prominent theme.

If the introductio...more

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Mar 11, 2008

Yuval marked it as excerpts-read

I've gone through a number of these stories now and enjoyed each one tremendously; he comes across to me a lot like the proto-absurd, tragicomic Japanese Gogol (but maybe it's Akutagawa's own "Nose" that makes me think so). I didn't get to all of the stories in this edition but hope to dip back into it in the future.

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May 03, 2010

Praj rated it

Akutagawa known as the “Father of Japanese short stories” stays true to his designation with this collection of metaphysically refined stories. The rendered stories: - The Grove, Yam Gruel, Rashomon, Martyr to name a few; highlights Akutagawa’s preference for macabre themes of immortality, depression, virtue, chaos and death. These stories encompass a constant battle of skepticism prevailing over virtue of morality v/s existence of evil.

In Rashomon, the act of the gh...more

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Jul 15, 2010

daniel rated it

i did it! i finished the story! the sun should be coming up any minute now. i hear the chill-sounding crow of the rooster outside, but why do i feel depressed even though i've managed to finish writing this? o-kimi made it back unscathed to her room over the beauty parlor that night, but unless she stops waiting on tables at the cafe, there's no saying she won't go out with tanaka alone again. and when i think of what might happen then - no, what happens then will happen then. no amount of wo...more

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Oct 03, 2011

Vanessa Wu rated it

· review of another edition

When I first started writing book reviews and posting them to my blog I really didn't care what I wrote. I never spent more than 10 minutes on any of them. I just wanted my name to be posted on the internet every day. The point was to publicise my stories, into which I poured my heart and soul.

Then something terrible happened. People began to read my reviews. Not just any old people. Experts.

I've had Chinese literary experts. Sex experts. Hard-boiled fiction experts. Ther...moreWhen I first started writing book reviews and posting them to my blog I really didn't care what I wrote. I never spent more than 10 minutes on any of them. I just wanted my name to be posted on the internet every day. The point was to publicise my stories, into which I poured my heart and soul.

Then something terrible happened. People began to read my reviews. Not just any old people. Experts.

I've had Chinese literary experts. Sex experts. Hard-boiled fiction experts. There's an expert Haiku practitioner lurking out there ready to scrutinise my forthcoming poetry book review. And now, having just announced I'll be reviewing this book of stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, I've got a Rashomon expert. A violent one. With Ninja skills.

I feel a bit like Horikawa Yasukichi in the story The Writer's Craft.

Yasukichi is an English teacher in the Naval Engineering School. His real love is writing stories. It is not easy for him to create literature while working in a school, especially when he is sometimes called on to write a eulogy for a dead colleague at the drop of a hat. But neither can Yasukichi easily abandon his artistic integrity and turn out a dud funeral speech riddled with hackneyed phrases.

What to do?

It's quite a dilemma for the writer.

However, with a deadline for one of his stories pressing down on him, and the funeral only three days away, Yasukichi falls back on "the writer's craft" and dashes off the eulogy in thirty minutes.

Can you imagine his shame when the dead man's family start to cry on hearing his words?

Yasukichi's first reaction to this scene was one of surprise. Then came the satisfaction of the playwright who has succeeded in wringing tears from his audience. But in the end he felt an emotion of far greater magnitude: a bitter self-reproach, a sense of wrongdoing for which there could be no penitence. All unknowing, he had tramped with muddy feet into the sacred recesses of the human heart.

I'm sorry, Sessha. Please don't come after me with your katana, wakizashi and tanto. All I can say about these stories is that they filled me with shame and a heavy sense my own inadequacy. Writing stories is not easy. There is a long, long literary tradition to live up to and an unforgiving writer's code to uphold. But no matter what creative burden we carry, there's never an excuse for writing a sloppy review.
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Jul 24, 2011

Sally rated it

Shelves: classics

I wish I had enjoyed this more. The stories are separated into three sections, the first of which I enjoyed very much. 'Rashomon' and 'Hell Screen' and the one about the dragon god (the name of which escapes me) were all very good but I did not enjoy the second section at all albeit for one story and the third section, which purports to be autobiographical, was very disjointed and uninteresting. This section read like a very boring diary of the frustrated life of an artist. I don't understand ar...more

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May 28, 2011

Vasha7 rated it

A book whose acquaintance I am very happy to make. Although a translation can only give a faint idea of what these stories' reputation for stylistic mastery is based on, their bitter irony and narrative economy appeals to me. I think the title story will stick in my head for a long time. (A bit confusingly, that's not the one Kurosawa's movie "Rashomon" is based on, but another, "In a Bamboo Grove".) I was impressed by "The Story of a Head That Fell Off", "Gree...more

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Nov 09, 2010

lyell bark rated it

· review of another edition

cool collection of stories from famous suicide ryunosuke akutagawa imo. he reminds me a bit of gogol, especially the proto-salary man comedy "horse legs". most of the stories are real good, esp horse legs, "green onions", "hell screen", "death reister", "life of a stupid man", "loyalty" and "spinning gears." thats like half the book there folks. the girl in "green onions" mistaking her portrait of woodrow wilson for ...more

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Aug 06, 2011

Ran Pravithana rated it

Shelves: asian, novel-literature

ในบรรดานักเขียนญี่ปุ่นทุกคนที่ผมเคยอ่าน ผมนับว่าริวโนสุเกะ อาคุตะกะวะเป็นอัจฉริยะในหมู่อัจฉริยะ
แต่ไม่ใช่ว่าคนทุกคนจะชอบสไตล์งานเขียนของอาคุตะกาว่า เพราะสไตล์เรื่องสั้นของเขาหลายครั้งเป็นงานเขียนที่ดึงเอาด้านมืดของจิตใจมนุษย์มาโยนใส่หน้าคนอ่านแบบไม่มีการประณีประนอม สร้าง ethical paradox พร้อมเปิดช่องให้ผู้อ่านตีความบทประพันธ์เอาเอง ซึ่งจะพบได้ในเรื่องสั้นหลายเรื่องของหนังสือเล่มนี้ (ในป่าละเมาะ, ฉากนรก)
(แนวการเขียนรูปแบบนี้นับได้ว่าเป็นต้นแบบของงานเขียนในยุคหลังๆ จำพวก postmodernism ที่...moreในบรรดานักเขียนญี่ปุ่นทุกคนที่ผมเคยอ่าน ผมนับว่าริวโนสุเกะ อาคุตะกะวะเป็นอัจฉริยะในหมู่อัจฉริยะ
แต่ไม่ใช่ว่าคนทุกคนจะชอบสไตล์งานเขียนของอาคุตะกาว่า เพราะสไตล์เรื่องสั้นของเขาหลายครั้งเป็นงานเขียนที่ดึงเอาด้านมืดของจิตใจมนุษย์มาโยนใส่หน้าคนอ่านแบบไม่มีการประณีประนอม สร้าง ethical paradox พร้อมเปิดช่องให้ผู้อ่านตีความบทประพันธ์เอาเอง ซึ่งจะพบได้ในเรื่องสั้นหลายเรื่องของหนังสือเล่มนี้ (ในป่าละเมาะ, ฉากนรก)
(แนวการเขียนรูปแบบนี้นับได้ว่าเป็นต้นแบบของงานเขียนในยุคหลังๆ จำพวก postmodernism ที่ผู้อ่านเป็นผู้กำหนดความหมายของวรรณกรรม โดยเฉพาะในงานหลากหลายเรื่องของมูราคามิ)

หนังสือของไทยมีชื่อว่า ราโชมอนและเรื่องสั้นอื่นๆ ซึ่งมีเรื่องสั้นเพียง 5 เรื่องในเล่ม (ราโชมอน, ในป่าละเมาะ, ใยแมงมุม, จมูก, ฉากนรก)

ในป่าละเมาะ (In the Grove, 藪の中) เป็นเรื่องสั้นที่น่าจะเป็นที่รู้จักกันมากที่สุด เพราะอากิระ คุโรซาว่า ผู้กำกับชื่อดังได้นำไปสร้างเป็นภาพยนตร์ชื่อราโชมอน (หลังจากนั้นด้วยความแนวของบทหนัง ราโชมอนได้ถูกนำไปรีเมคเป็นภาพยนตร์ฮอลิวู้ดชื่อ The Outrage และล่าสุดม.ล.พันธุ์เทวนพ เทวกุลก็นำเนื้อหาของราโชมอนมาดัดแปลงเป็นภาพยนตร์ไทยที่ชื่อว่าอุโมงค์ผาเมือง)
ในป่าละเมาะเล่าเรื่องราวการฆาตกรรมจากมุมมองของผู้อยู่ในเหตุการณ์หลายคน แต่เรื่องราวที่เล่าออกจากปากกลับแตกต่างกันไปคนละทาง เรื่องราวแบบปลายเปิดไร้การคลี่คลายในตอนจบ เป็นงานเขียนที่เรียบง่ายแต่ทรงพลัง ตีแผ่ธรรมชาติด้านลบของจิตใจมนุษย์ได้อย่างตรงไปตรงมา

(ผมชอบเรื่องสั้นของอาคุตะกะวะเรื่องนี้มากกว่าบทภาพยนตร์ที่ถูกดัดแปลงโดยอากิระ คุโรซาว่าเสียอีก คุโรซาว่ามีมุมมองจิตใจมนุษย์ในด้านบวก ส่วนอาคุตะกะวะเป็นด้านลบ ทำให้หนังราโชมอนของคุโรซาว่ามีสเน่ห์น่าสนใจว่าผู้กำกับที่มองโลกในแง่ดี จะตีความเรื่องราวของนักเขียนที่มองโลกในแง่ร้ายได้อย่างไร)

แต่ในบรรดาเรื่องสั้น 5 เรื่องในหนังสือเล่มนี้ ผมกลับชอบฉากนรก (Hell Screen, 地獄変) มากที่สุด ฉากนรกเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่พูดถึงจิตกรเอกที่ไม่สามารถวาดภาพที่สมจริงได้หากไม่เห็นภาพเหตุการณ์จริงเกิดขึ้นตรงหน้า และเมื่อจิตกรได้รับโจทย์จากมหาเสนาบดีให้วาดภาพนรก การทิ้งจิตวิญญาณความเป็นมนุษย์เพื่อสร้างสรรค์งานศิลปะจึงทำให้เกิดโศกนาฏกรรมที่น่าสยดสยอง

**spoiler alert**
แอบรู้สึกไปว่าในเรื่องฉากนรก จิตกรเอกโยชิฮิเดะเป็นเหมือนกับภาพสะท้อนตัวตนของอาคุตะกะวะ ความคลั่งไคล้ในงานศิลปะแบบถอนตัวไม่ขึ้น ความหลงไหลระดับที่ยอมให้สิ่งที่มีค่ามากที่สุดในชีวิตของตัวถูกเผาไหม้เพื่อแลกกับการสร้างผลงานชิ้นเอก สำหรับโยชิฮิเดะ สิ่งนั้นคือบุตรสาว ส่วนของตัวอาคุตะกะวะ สิ่งนั้นคือจิตวิญญาณ
ความโหดร้ายที่เกินจะรับได้ของโยชิฮิเดะในตอนท้ายเรื่องนั้นความจริงอาจเป็นเพียงการอุทิศทุกสิ่งทุกอย่างในชีวิตเพื่อแลกมาซึ่งผลงานอมตะเหมือนตัวอาคุตะกะวะ

และบทสุดท้ายของโยชิฮิเดะนั้นก็ปิดลงเหมือนกับบั้นปลายชีวิตของอาคุตะกะวะเช่นกัน(less)

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Apr 01, 2010

April rated it

I wouldn't call these stories so much as I would call them vignettes. Story implies a plot, an arc, something with a beginning, a middle, and an end, but these are mostly impressions. A few of them were stories, some even pretty good, but most of them were not. I was really, really disappointed.

I was especially disappointed with Rashomon. People have raved to me about the movie, so I expected a short story of a quality that would inspire someone to make a movie out of it, but again, ...more

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Oct 10, 2008

Ad_blankestijn rated it

Perfectly translated new edition of famous classical stories as "Rashomon," "In a Bamboo grove," "The Nose," "Dragon," "Hell Screen" and "The Spider's Thread." Akutagawa used to be only available in somewhat antiquated translations, so this new translation is very welcome. Besides historical fiction, also several modern stories have been included. "The Story of a Head that Fell Off" is the perfect anti-war tale; and "Hors...more

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Oct 09, 2008

Robert Beveridge rated it

Shelves: cuy-co-pub-lib, finished

Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon and 17 Other Stories (Penguin, 2006)

I'll admit I picked this up less because it was Akutagawa than the bit that said “illustrated by Yoshihiro Tatsumi”, who's been one of the best in the business for over thirty years. When I actually got it, I found out Tatsumi was only responsible for the cover, but I went ahead and read it anyway. Eighteen of Akutagawa's stories, including “Rashomon” and “In a Grove” (the two stories that, in combination, Kurosawa ada...more

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Sep 20, 2011

Patrick McCoy rated it

Shelves: japanese-literature

I must say that I was drawn to Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Rashomon and 17 Other Stories by the alluring manga (comic) cover. Of course, I’ve been curious about this writer since there is a major literary award named after him and the fact that Kurosawa used his stories for his major breakthrough film Rashomon. This Penguin Deluxe Edition has an introduction by Haruki Murakami (my favorite contemporary Japanese author) and was translated by his usual translator Jay Rubin. I was surprised to find out t...more

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Dec 05, 2007

Taka rated it

Shelves: japan_jul07-aug10, japanese_lit

Good, but...

Yes. I did it. I've committed one of the ultimate literary sacrileges of all time. I read Akutagawa Ryunosuke in translation when I could have read it in original Japanese. I am guilty as charged; there is no question about it. I just couldn't resist a book with such a cool cover and Murakami's introduction plus his trusted Jay Rubin doing the translation. I just had to buy it.

Having said that, I did read it along with the actual Japanese text in front of me...moreGood, but...

Yes. I did it. I've committed one of the ultimate literary sacrileges of all time. I read Akutagawa Ryunosuke in translation when I could have read it in original Japanese. I am guilty as charged; there is no question about it. I just couldn't resist a book with such a cool cover and Murakami's introduction plus his trusted Jay Rubin doing the translation. I just had to buy it.

Having said that, I did read it along with the actual Japanese text in front of me to see how well Jay Rubin has grappled with difficult early 19th-century Japanese and rendered it into English. And the result was somewhat disappointing. I think he does a good job translating Murakami's works, but here with Akutagawa, he pretty much butchers most of his early stories that take place in medieval Japan (which stories, by the way, are usually extolled as his masterpieces). The original Japanese is, of course, in medieval Japanese, and it is quite different from modern Japanese (but not as different as modern English to Chaucer's middle English). But Mr. Rubin sometimes translates conversations into highly colloquial English, and that just doesn't work with Akutagawa's early stories.

The Japanese language - still today and even more so back in the day - is a very polite language, which logically makes it a very vague language as well, where curse words don't really exist and you say things in a very roundabout way. And to render this into modern colloquial English is like equivalent of rendering Shakespeare into today's slang with an abundance of "F" and "N" and other such words. Now from a reader's point of view, Mr. Rubin's translation is very readable. Very. It could have, however, been a lot more conservative on the use of colloquialism and slang without compromising its readability.

For example, in one of the scenes, a lord tells his trusted servant to kill someone, and the original reads more or less, "Kill that man, that Rin'emon," which Mr. Rubin translates as "Kill that bastard!" Alright. This does show the degree to which this guy is mad (in fact crazy), but I'm sorry, that just doesn't work. The word "bastard" is just way too much a bad word for someone like a lord himself could utter (and I don't think there was an equivalent in medieval Japanese). I do recognize the difficulty since the Japanese here is very very subtle. The meaning is close to "bastard," but a LOT less blatant than what the English word conveys. In many many instances Mr. Rubin resorts to colloquial English that sounds too jarring to a Japanese ear when compared to the subtle nuances and beauty of the original Japanese. But that's just me, who is fortunate enough to be able to read both Japanese and English with more or less equal fluency. So as far as the translation is concerned, hats off to Mr. Rubin for making Akutagawa's stories easily available for the English-speaking public, but as an artistic work, it could have done much better by avoiding too much colloquialism and using more formal (and even a bit archaic) English to better convey the original voice of the text.

W/r/t the stories, they are really good. I'd even say he's Japan's Chekhov. In fact, you could see an exotic blend of Kafka, Gogol, Chekhov, and even Dostoevsky at work behind these stories. My personal favorites are his famous "Hell Screen" (intense and just awesome), "In the Bamboo Grove" (Kurosawa's Rashomon is based on this), and "Horse legs" (which is very Kafkaesque and just funny). "Loyalty" is also excellent in terms of it psychological insights. Though I wasn't a big fan of his later, autobiographical stories, they were strangely engaging. It's just too bad that one of his most famous stories, "Kappa," is not included in this collection. Overall, it's a good short anthology of Akutagawa's stories.

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Jun 01, 2008

Kyle rated it

There is more than a little bit of Gogol's ideas here, as Akutagawa admits in his own madman's diary, The Life of a Stupid Man. Yet for all the personal tragedy noted in his chronology and appearing throughout his works, there is still two qualities that make his works admired by many: professionalism and playfulness. He reads greatly about other cultures, and retells the this wide range as Japanese stories. And he always seems to be writing, too. Especially during the darkest times in his l...more

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Jun 18, 2007

Sarah rated it

I liked it enough to keep reading every night after I should have gone to sleep, cutting into my precious sleeping hours. The story Rashomon is haunting, and the backdrop of the samurai period gone to seed is creepy and unlike anything I'd previously thought about Japan. We just saw Memoirs of a Geisha, I know, not even slightly realistic and so poorly written, oy veh! That world is so picture perfect so story book, and yet I now realize that it is very much the image of early 20th century of Ja...more

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Aug 03, 2010

Vogisland rated it

Shelves: fiction

I had mixed feelings about this book until the final section, which consists of autobiographical stories. Seeing more of Akutagawa's internal world cast new light on the preceding stories. "The Life of a Stupid Man" and "Spinning Gears" were heartbreaking. I also loved "Green Onions", "Hell Screen" and a few others.

Beautiful cover art on this edition by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (unfortunately replaced on a newer printing). A useful chronology and ...more

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May 06, 2008

Skip rated it

Recommends it for: my daimyo, people who pull the hair out of corpses to make wigs.

Pretty short collection of ancient Japanese fiction. Rashomon is great story about evil begetting evil, and some of the other stories herein I had never heard of, but enjoyed reading. The styles of some of these older Japanese stories are really disjointed; they seem to break off very quickly after the climax. The stories are mostly tragic, but after something horrible happens they end abruptly before any parable or moral lesson can be conveyed. This has much to do with the world view prevalent ...more

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Mar 10, 2011

Nick Tramdack rated it

The best book of short stories I read in 2009. Akutagawa's prose, "lucid as ice", is always astonishing. His work effortlessly mixes eastern and western motifs into a heady blend of aesthetic splendor, emotional intensity, detatched and exact narration, and violence. The translation seems scrupulous and the introduction by Haruki Murakami rivals anything for an intro to this great modernist writer.

Don't just read "Rashomon" and "In a Grove"!

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Dec 14, 2009

Rebekah rated it

If you enjoyed those ((Even)More) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books as a kid and wish you could still read them without looking like a total idiot, then by all means read this book. These "macabre" tales use all the same set-ups and plot devices and language as those cheesy stories from our youth, but somehow they're considered literature. Apparently they're historically significant as the earliest example of western influence on a Japanese author, but they're still boring.

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Jun 07, 2008

Anthony rated it

Recommends it for: kurosawa fans, japanophiles, suicidal writers

Shelves: short-fiction

if you watched and enjoyed kurosawa's Rashomon, it's worth reading this translation of the story it's based on (which, incidentally, is named "In a Budding Grove" - "Rashomon" is something else). i don't know how heartily i can recommend the book overall, though. the middle stories that focused on honor and death in japanese society were interesting culturally, but dragged a bit. i was actually not looking forward to picking this book up again after about a year's hiatus unti...more

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May 31, 2010

Chris Johnson rated it

Shelves: top-10-ever-novels

Great introduction to an author, Akutagawa, who is just as good as an F. Scott, a Faulkner or Hemingway. Some of the most eerie, and mind-warping short stories, stories period, you'll have the benefit of reading. Akira Kurosawa blended most of the stories in this book to create an all-time classic movie, Rashomon. Greatness precedes greatness.

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About Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He is renowned for his style and finely detailed stories that explore the darker side of human nature. Akutagawa wrote no full-length novels, focusing instead on short stories

Towards the end of his life, Akutagawa began suffering from visual hallucinations and nervousness over fear that he had inheri...more

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